


Friends in Low Places

by suchanadorer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Hell!Fic, Prompt Fill, SRS 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:23:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suchanadorer/pseuds/suchanadorer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://srs2012.dreamwidth.org/3911.html?thread=20295#cmt20295">Prompt at SRS 2012</a>: <i>Instead of Castiel, it's another angel/demon/being who saves Dean from Hell at the beginning of S4.</i> </p><p>I went with Lucifer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends in Low Places

Even from inside the cage, Lucifer still has a great deal of influence. It's still his kingdom, no matter how much he hates it.

He waits, because he’s not stupid. He wants to get out, and letting Dean get blood on his hands is the only way to set in motion the chain reaction that ends with him standing victorious on the battlefield, humanity laid to waste around him.

So when Dean finally takes Alastair’s offer, Lucifer does nothing. He watches as Dean takes up the knife, cuts into his first soul, and sheds bloods in Hell. He watches as Alastair teaches him, at turns patient and brutal, dealing out praise and punishment in equal measure until Dean is utterly enthralled in his work.

“Now let him out,” Lucifer calls to Alastair, who whispers something to Dean before leaving his side.

“But we’re only getting started,” Alastair protests, a wide, nervous grin stretching itself across his angular face. “He’s very good. Shame to lose such a talented student.”

“He’s done what we need him to do,” Lucifer says. “Now he goes back.”

Alastair looks back towards where they were working. Lucifer had demanded that Dean be kept in sight, so that he could watch his progress. Dean is circling the table, making small cuts into the woman lying there. She screams, and Alastair smiles, but Lucifer’s face is still grave.

“He can’t do what he needs to do next from here,” Lucifer explains impatiently. “He has to go back.”

“I can’t do that," Alastair reminds him with a sharp smile. "No demon can.”

Alastair has always been clever. He thinks quickly and never shows all his cards. It was something that Lucifer had admired in him in the beginning, but now he was trying to use that wit against him, and that was unacceptable.

It wasn't going to work, either.

"I can," Lucifer reassures him.

The screaming behind them stops abruptly. Dean is standing with his back to them, head bowed over the lifeless body on the table.

"Bring him here," Lucifer commands. For a moment Alastair looks like he wants to protest, but then he simply nods and turns away.

There is a streak of blood above Dean's eyebrow, and his hands are coated thick with it when he approaches Lucifer's cage. It's not really a thing with a concrete shape, the cage; everyone sees what they expect to see, and for Dean, it is steel bars and stone, with an archangel trapped behind them, glowing so brightly that Dean has to shield his eyes.

"Come closer," Lucifer beckons, reaching out with a tendril of Grace. He never uses it down here. It just scares and hurts the demons, but Dean is different, and the contact is soothing, a comfort he hasn't felt in decades. It leaves a mark on his arm like a hand print.

Dean steps right up to the bars, squinting and blinking as Lucifer shines.

"Is this really what you want to do?" Alastair drawls from over Dean's shoulder. Lucifer is quite sure he's had enough of his torture-master for the time being, so Alastair disappears.

"Hello, Dean." Lucifer does his best to sound calm and reassuring, but he's on edge. It was a long time since he felt anything other than hate, and now, standing before him, is the key to his victory. Everything's started, and he's exalted at the prospect of being set free.

"Who are you?" Dean asks. He's right to be wary. Even the kindness Alastair has shown him has only been under the guise of making him a more adept pupil, and while Dean knows he's good at what he does, he's not proud of it. Everything has a price here.

"I'm someone who wants to help you. I'm going to send you back."

"What?" Dean is disbelieving. He tries to look straight at Lucifer and recoils, rubbing at his eyes.

"You broke. I needed you to break, and you did, so now you're going home."

Dean nods shakily, as if he doesn't really understand what's happening. "Why?" He asks.

"You have more work to do. The angels need you. _Sam_ will need you." Lucifer feels a pang at the thought of Sam. He wants so badly to meet him, to show him how powerful and glorious they can be together. He knows Dean will stand in the way, but everything has its time and now it's Lucifer's duty to help the righteous man, even if they will be enemies in the not so distant future.

"Sam?" Dean says, looking around as if his brother was here beside him.

"Yes," Lucifer replies, "you're going back to your brother. Protect him, Dean. Don't let the angels kill him."

"He's my brother," Dean answers, as if that's all the information Lucifer should need to know. In fact, it is.

"Time to go. See you again soon." Lucifer coils his Grace into a tight ball. It will be no easy trick to push Dean back into his body from here, but Lucifer knows that even this is part of his father's plan.

"Thank you," Dean manages to get out before he's flying backwards, away from the cage and up towards his waiting body, buried in the woods in the middle of nowhere.

"He won't remember any of this, will he?" Alastair reappears, stepping out of flame and ash to look up at the disappearing speck that is Dean, riding a white hot trail of Grace back towards Earth.

Lucifer shakes his head. "Castiel will tell him that he was the one who pulled Dean out."

"Oh." Alastair is honestly surprised. "Castiel. Interesting choice."

"Even now he's beginning to feel doubt about the mission and his role in it. Watching over Dean will only make him fall that much more quickly."

Lucifer feels it the moment Dean's soul slips the bonds of Hell and returns to his body. He moves back into a dark corner of his cage and settles in to wait again. _Not long now._


End file.
